Extradition pleases slain woman’s family--Colombian rebel accused of killing Keshena native

Posted May 09, 2003 The Associated Press

SHAWANO — A Wisconsin mother is heartened to learn that a man accused of killing her daughter has become the first leftist Colombian rebel extradited to the United States.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday ordered Nelson Vargas Rueda to face murder charges in the 1999 slaying of three American activists in Colombia, including Ingrid Washinawatok, 41, a Keshena native and member of the Menominee Tribe.

Ingrid’s mother, Gwen Washinawatok, said it was good news for the family.

“I didn’t think anything more was going to happen, other than to get her home,” she said. “That is a great development for us.”

Vargas is one of six members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, indicted in April 2002 in federal court in Washington for the murders of Terence Freitas, 24, of Los Angeles, Lahe’ena’e Gay, 39, of Pahoa, Hawaii, and Washinawatok, who was living in New York City.

They were in northeastern Colombia to help set up a school system for the 5,000-member Uwa Indian tribe when FARC rebels kidnapped them in February 1999, according to the indictment.

Days later, the kidnappers shot the victims. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found across the border in Venezuela.

Facing international outrage, the FARC admitted its fighters killed the Americans. They blamed a rogue lower-level commander and said he would be punished internally.

The murders prompted the United States to suspend all contact with the FARC, a leftist rebel group that has been fighting a series of elected governments in this South American nation for 38 years.

The United States considers the FARC an international terrorist organization and has provided Colombia with millions of dollars, mostly military aid, to fight the organization and other rebel groups.

The State Department considers most of the country unsafe for Americans. Vargas has five days to appeal the order, the first Uribe has approved. The United States has also asked for the extradition of several other FARC rebels, including top leaders, in drug trafficking cases.